iThought That I Hated You But I Guess I Was Wrong
by In One Breath
Summary: Freddie hates Sam, and Sam hates Freddie. Until Sam realizes that there's just something about him that makes her actually like him. Now she can only hope Freddie feels the same way. SEDDIE. T just in case.
1. Sam Hates Freddie

_**Hey everyone. I used to write stories about The Suite Life (Dylan), Kim Possible (Ron), and Danny Phantom (Danny), which is how my name got started. haha. But right now, I love iCarly! So I'm taking a shot at a fanfic. I might not always be able to update, but I'll try. And yes, this is going to be a Seddie.**_

"Hey Sam, check this out: there's a new store opening in the mall," Carly said, scanning a pile of mail. She and Sam were sitting on the couch at her house, waiting for Freddie to get ready for their next webcast. The air smelled like hair products, since they had fun smoothing gels into their hair, and Spencer had joined in too. He used the gels not only on his hair, but on his face. Carly got a nice picture of that.

"The place next to the smoothie store?" Sam said.

"Yeah. A new clothes store. It's a local business. It's called..." Carly browsed the ad, "Seattle Stuff."

"Are they serious? That's like the worst name ever."

"I know, seriously."

"I'm not shopping there."

"Good." Carly smiled and threw the ad in front of her. Just as she did, there was a knock on the door. Carly and Sam both got up and Sam watched as Carly opened the door. Freddie.

"Hey Carly," he said in a dreamy voice, "and uh...Sam. You guys ready?" Freddie had a glow on his face. Sam was determined to make him not glow.

"Did you get shorter?" she asked.

Just as she had hoped, Freddie stopped glowing. He looked at Sam with hatred, maybe not hatred, but definite dislike, and his heart sank. She finally met his glare, and then suddenly felt remorseful. But she didn't show it.

"Just wondering," she said.

"Maybe you got taller," Freddie said in a monotone.

Sam thought about this. "I'm pretty sure you shrunk," she said, smirking.

"Okay, settle your height differences later," Carly said. "We need to set up for the show." They sighed and walked to the elevator, and watched as Carly pressed the up button.

"By the way Freddie..." Carly started.

"Yeah?"

"You are pretty short."

When the three got to the loft, Freddie immediately started setting up the cameras, starting up the computer, doing everything like he normally did to prep for the webcast. For some reason, Sam was watching...she never usually did, and so maybe that's why everything was so incredible to her. She saw Freddie biting his tongue as he adjusted the camera so it was pointing in the exact direction where Carly and Sam would stand. She saw him flip switches and press buttons and wondering what was really going on inside his nerdish brain.

"I wonder what's really going on inside Freddie's nerdish brain," she said to Carly, but loud enough so Freddie could hear it too.

"Well, he's like a super-genius," Carly said. "Probably a bunch of smart stuff."

Sam noticed that Freddie didn't pay attention to what they were saying. He was that absorbed in his work.

"Did you hear me Freddie? Your nerdish brain?"

Freddie shook his head and clicked something on the computer screen. "Okay, you guys are all set. We go live in 20 seconds."

Carly and Sam took their places in front of the camera, and Sam pulled out the noise maker. They listened to Freddie. "5...4...3...2...1."

"Hey everyone, this is Carly!"

"And hey, it's uh..." Sam was still looking at Freddie, and forgot her cue. His fingers gripped the camera and he wrinkled his forehead. He looked at her and mouthed, "What?" Then she realized she was looking at him, and she instantly stuck her finger down her throat at him. He rolled his eyes. "Uh, oh yeah, I'm Sam."

"And..." Carly watched all this with fascination. It was like the gears in her head were turning and Sam didn't really like her tone of voice. "Well, I actually have an idea, Sam."

"O...kay? Sure?"

"Today we were _going _to show you a kid who uses his grandma's bras as slingshots, _buuuuuut..._I think we'll save that for next week. Today, we're going to talk about my two best friends, and our co-host and techie guy, Sam and Freddie."

"NO!" Sam and Freddie both yelled. They glared at each other.

"Uh, yeah. Freddie, put your camera on auto and come over here," Carly said grinning.

"No, I don't think so," Freddie said.

"Too bad, you don't think." Carly pulled him off his chair and let him go. He sighed, stood up, set his camera, and dragged his feet over to Sam.

"So you all know Sam, and you all know Freddie. What you might not know is they hate each others' guts. They really do." Carly's hair bounced as she turned from Freddie to Carly. "They act like 5 year-olds around each other. I swear to God, it's hilarious."

"He has the diaper to go with it," Sam murmured.

"And you have the brains to go with it," Freddie said, folding his arms and turning his head away.

"See? Aren't they funny?" Carly grabbed the sound maker from Sam and played the cheering sound. "Yeah they are!"

"Okay, Carly, there's nothing here. There's no way you can make a whole webcast episode just about me and Freddie hating each other." Sam hesitated at the word "hating", but only for a minute.

"I bet she could," said Freddie.

"Shut UP, Freddie!"

"Why don't you?! You're always so loud and obnoxious. No one likes you anyway!"

"Oh yeah? The only girlfriend you ever had used you and face it: CARLY WILL NEVER GO OUT WITH YOU!" As soon as she said it, she felt a lump in her throat. She hadn't meant to say that.

"Well...well..." Freddie looked into the camera and felt weird, being on the other side of it, knowing that Sam had just shared one of his personal not-so-secrets with thousands of viewers. He paused, picking his word choice carefully. He put his hands on his hips, pressed his lips together, stared at the ground and said, "Why do you have to be so mean to me?"

"It's part of my job as your mortal enemy," Sam said, again automatically, again cold and unfeeling. What she really wanted to say was, sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I know I can be mean sometimes but that was too much, and I'm secretly kind of fascinated with you and everything you do...

Whoa. Where did that come from?

But Sam realized, as she watched Freddie make a face and look at Carly for support, that she really was. She watched his mouth move, his voice speak, his brain work, and it was like watching a movie. A good movie. A movie she would give 5 stars for. She felt a bead of sweat on her neck roll down her back and she was afraid that he might have noticed her, but he hadn't. She was relieved he hadn't. She would have had a lot of explaining to do, and right now, her brain was mush.

Carly just said, "Okay, I think we'll go back to that kid. Uh, please welcome Keith Brent and his giant bra slingshots." She gave Sam a questioning look, and Sam just shrugged.

Then Freddie looked at Sam.

She felt the lump in her throat again, and she didn't want to lock eyes with him. She knew she would just keep staring and never turn away. But she could feel his gaze burning on her, so she turned ever so slightly and looked at his deep, brown eyes. This was the same kid she gave wedgies and the same kid who she probably cause him permanent physical and emotional scars. Right now though, he seemed like a different person. Or maybe he hadn't changed at all...but her feelings toward him did. Sam slowly curled her lips up into a smile.

"Uh, why are you smiling?" Freddie said quietly, returning back to his camera. "I don't look stupid, do I?

Normally, Sam would have said, "You always look stupid." But now, she said, "No, you don't stupid. You look...amazing."


	2. Freddie Hates Sam

_**Thanks for the reviews!**_

_**I really appreciate them! It keeps me writing. :**_

_**So here you go, a nice juicy chapter. haha.**_

He thought she was kidding. Maybe even teasing him again. So when she looked absolutely serious, he was surprised. Shocked. Scared.

_"You look...amazing."_

There was no way that Sam Puckett could have said that and _meant _it.

But she did.

He thought about it that night, after the webcast was over and he, Carly and Sam had watched it on SplashFace and checked the number of viewers. There were more, a lot more, probably about 6,000 more than usual, and all those people watched Sam and Freddie dish it out. He was in his room, just messing with his cell phone, his brain working overtime. Freddie's phone was a Palm Treo, the organizer kind with all the confusing buttons. He liked writing memos on it about his life and what he was doing, although most of it was just things he learned about calibrating screens and adjusting color balances. Now, his fingers pressed the keys at lightning speed as he wrote about the day.

_Hey, you know what?_

_I'm really confused._

_Do you think maybe..._

He didn't want to finish writing.

_That maybe..._

_Sam..._

_doesn't hate me?_

_I mean, she hardly ever acts like my friend._

_But she kind of did today..._

_oh my god i am so confused._

He let his phone go and it dropped on his bed. He hadn't solved anything. And now his phone was vibrating. Freddie checked it again.

**1 New Text Message**

"Okay. Who texts me at 11 pm at night?" Freddie said to himself, a habit that he was trying to break. He read the message in disbelief.

**Sam:**

_Are you as confused as I am?_

He read it, and read it again and again, seeing the words but not believing them. So she was probably at her house, feeling the same way he was. He let this sink into his mind, and he sent her a message back.

**Freddie:**

_That depends...how confused are you?_

Instantly, she replied.

**Sam:**

_idk. I mean, uggh. Is it ok if I come over for a while??_

He swallowed.

Sam? Over at 11? His mom wouldn't even let Carly come over this late, and she knew that he liked her. Or used to, or...whatever. But he wanted her over. He wanted to talk to her. He needed some kind of understanding.

**Freddie:**

_well...i mean...ok?_

**Sam:**

_wow uh ok i'm coming over now. i'm sneaking out._

What the heck was going on?

Freddie's face flushed as he wrote:

_ok._

Less than 15 minutes later, Sam arrived. She knocked on the door lightly, just enough so someone awake would hear and someone asleep would ignore. She hadn't changed from her pajamas, which were black with purple polka-dots, because if she did, she might have woken up her parents. She had to sneak out the back door, and she was luckily the TV was left on because otherwise, they might have heard the huge creak that the door had made. Now she was here, standing outside Freddie's door, _Freddie's _door, not Carly's, and she could hardly believe it. She blinked to make sure she wasn't dreaming, but she opened her eyes once, twice, three times, and she still stared into a white door.

Freddie opened it a crack and whispered, "Sam?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Oh, good. Here, come in. You can just, uh, make yourself at home..." Freddie opened the door wider and looked at her, scanning her up and down. She had let her gold curls out instead of keeping them in the half-up, half-down style she usually did, and, Freddie noted, that she didn't look bored to see him like usual. She looked at him with interest, then stepped inside and went to Freddie's room. She sat on his bed and tilted her head to him. He didn't know what to say or what to do, and he felt frozen.

"So you wanna talk?" she asked.

"Yeah. Well, um. Eh." _Stupid_, he told himself. _You went from nerd to dork. _"I mean, what did you mean on iCarly, when you said, 'You look amazing'?"

Sam thought for a moment. She wasn't sure whether or not she should lie to him and play it off as a joke, or just let him know why she was so confused in the first place.

She decided to tell him the truth.

"I think I kind of, well, I've been thinking a lot. And I know I would never say this in a million years," she said. "Or even a billion years. But..." She half-smiled and caught Freddie's glance, just looking at him for a minute. "Hey, has anyone told you you're kinda cute?"

Freddie's eyes opened wide. "Uh...well, _you_ definitely haven't."

"I know. Cause I've been a little too mean to you, I guess," Sam said.

"A _little_?! I spend half my life scared out of my mind because of you," he said, trying not to yell.

"A couple days ago, I would have loved to hear you say that," she said, laughing a little. "Now, I'm not so sure."

"So, what are you saying?" Freddie said, pressing his thumbs together.

Sam put her hands on her thighs and blinked a couple times, her whole body feeling unusually warm. "Is it okay if I try something, and if I don't like it, I never have to do it again?"

"Sure," Freddie said, unaware of what she was thinking about, and trying hard to figure it out.

"Because I want to try something, but it might feel a little weird."

"Go ahead."

Sam smiled, leaned forward, and planted a soft kiss on his lips. She held it for a second, her heart pounding and her brain yelling at her, "What the hell are you doing?!" She liked it, she realized, and everything she thought about Freddie before, was replaced with this new version of him. A version of him who would forgive her for bullying him. Then as she pulled away, she heard his voice:

"But...I like Carly..."

"Forget Carly," she said. _Why did she say that?_

"Sam. This is just so weird. You're supposed to hate me," he said.

"Well, obviously, I don't."

"Really? Okay, you're not joking are you?"

"I just kissed you! How could I be joking?"

Freddie eyed her, then he seemed to come to his decision. He leaned back. "Okay. So you don't hate me. You like me. Right?"

"Yeah," Sam said, finally believing herself. She was finding it hard to catch her breath.

"And I like Carly."

Sam winced. "Yeah."

Freddie let out a deep breath he'd been holding. "I'm not sure if I like you though."

Sam felt any happiness she had felt from kissing Freddie turn sour. "Thanks," she said. She turned her head to her shoes, her favorite pair of Chucks, that she had slid on before she came. "It was just a test anyway. I didn't like it that much. In fact, I don't like you that much."

"Oh, okay," Freddie said plainly. _I sound so smooth...NOT! _ "Well, can we just forget this ever happened then? I can go back to liking Carly and you can go back to--"

"Being the loud, obnoxious girl that no one likes," Sam said sadly, feeling her face get warmer. She stayed quiet for a while, and they just sat on Freddie's bed, staring at the wall.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah...you should be. See you later. I guess." Sam stood up and walked out, just like that, leaving Freddie to wonder if maybe he was really dumber than he thought.

She liked him.

She actually did.

And he told her no.


	3. this chapter is super duper short sorry

"I hate him," Sam said to Carly at school. They were by their lockers, getting books out and secretly eating a bag of sour cream and onion chips. Ms. Briggs hated when kids ate in the halls, which is why they threw a couple chips out and crunched them with their shoes, kicking the crumbs all over the hall.

"What's new? You always hate Freddie," Carly said.

"No, I mean, I _really _hate him," Sam said. She scanned the hall, looking for Freddie, relieved when she didn't find him.

"Oh my gosh, there's actually a reason," Carly joked, smiling at Sam. Sam, however, was not in the mood to smile back. So Carly's face dropped down again and she closed her locker. "Why? What happened?"

"Uh, well..." Sam wasn't really planning on explaining to Carly that she had liked Freddie and he said he didn't like her because he liked Carly. Not only did it hurt, but it was embarrassing. She could never live it down if she said she actually had some sort of feelings for Freddie besides her love of teasing him. "There's a reason but it's hard to explain. I'll talk to you later, or--"

Then she stopped, only because she saw him.

She thought Freddie looked like he had just stepped out of a movie, the way his hair was, in a way, neatly messed up, and the dark greens and blues of his shirt were so vibrant. She saw his lips open into a smile, and also she saw the way his eyes were so full of life, dancing, twinkling, happy. She shook her head to try to get all these thoughts out of her mind. _Ew. I'm actually sort of obsessed with Freddie now. That is so wrong!_

"Hey girls," he said casually, mostly to Carly. Sam made a face at him, and she started to walk away, giving each step an extra punch. Freddie had a look of sheer puzzlement on his face, while Carly just sighed.

"Wait, Sam, what's wrong?" he called after her. "Carly, what's with Sam?"

"I don't know. I don't have any part in this."

"Aw...that doesn't help me." Suddenly the plug over Freddie's head connected to the socket. "Oh, duh...no wonder she's so mad at me. Last night, she--" He cut himself off when he realized that Carly's eyes were opening wide with wonder. "Never mind," he said pathetically.

Carly twirled around, grabbing Freddie's shoulders and pinning him against the lockers. He struggled to get free, squirming this way and that, but Carly was too strong for him. "Let...me...go! I don't have anything to say!"

"C'mon! What did Sam do?"

"It's private."

Carly kept him down. "Okay, now I have to know. Tell me, or else I'll tell everyone on our next webcast that the last time you lost your mom in the store, you started crying and you had to go to customer service." She burst out laughing. "Then the lady said over the intercom, 'Mrs. Benson, please come pick up your boy at the front. He's having a temper tantrum and disrupting our customers.' And then that one old lady..."

"...hit me with her purse and told me to keep my yapper shut," Freddie finished. "Please don't tell them that. I'll tell you what happened with me and Sam if you let go of my shoulders," he said, wincing in pain as she did.

"You're free. Go."

Freddie took in a deep breath of air, and held it for awhile, slowly letting it out. "Sam kissed me."

Carly choked on a sour cream chip, gagging to get it out of her windpipe. When she finally did, she cried, "_What?!_"

"Yeah. Sam likes me. Or maybe she liked me. I don't really know."

"Are you serious? Did you take her temperature?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, you should have.. She's probably really sick. Are you just going to let her hallucinate things now?"

"No, seriously. She was actually being nice to me. She came over late last night."

Carly raised an eyebrow. "How late?"

"Way late. Like, 11. And I think I hurt her feelings by saying I didn't like her."

"Oh god. Freddie, when a girl likes you, well, actually, when a girl like Samlikes you, you aren't supposed to do that right after she kisses you. Any smart guy would know that," Carly said, feeling frustrated.

"I know! But I didn't mean to!"

"Obviously, you did." Carly was losing her patience with Freddie. He could be so stupid even though he was a technological geek. "You need to go fix things with her."

"But--"

"NOW!" She gave him a shove towards the direction that Sam had left in. "Please just go. At least explain to her what's going on."

"Or what?" Freddie said, crossing his arms.

"Or I'll beat you with a loaf of cheese bread, okay?"

"I dislike cheese bread," he said. After they looked at each other for a few seconds, they bit their lips, trying not to laugh. Carly finally just let out her laughter and Freddie joined in, and for a while they forgot about Sam. Freddie looked at Carly's face, feeling so much joy in being around her, something he wouldn't feel with Sam. It was empty, shallow happiness, but he enjoyed it. For a while he said in his mind, _This is the girl I like. I like her. _Then he remembered Sam. So maybe he wasn't, like, in _love _with Sam. But he definitely didn't hate her. Just for a while, he decided to forget that he liked Carly, and focus on Sam. He felt bad for making her upset, and he wanted to make things better.

They quickly stopped laughing when they realized the bell had rung more than five minutes before, and they ran as fast as they could, panting for air, to get to their first period class.

"Okay, look," Freddie said between breaths, "I'll talk to her when she comes over to your house today."

"Sure. Just please...don't be an idiot."

"I'll try," he said, opening the door to their science class and letting himself in.

Although he knew that was impossible.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for reviews!**

**I love them lots!**

**Also I like constructive criticism too. So leave me some when you can :**

**And also: the next chapter will probably get a little bit more of a plot so if this chapter seems like disorganized it's because I'm being sloppy. lol so here goes!**

At lunch, Carly had made a point of telling Sam five times that Spencer had called the school and asked to pick up Carly for a doctor's appointment instead of her walking home with Sam and Freddie like usual, when in truth she was just walking home a different way so Sam and Freddie had to walk home together. She hoped that she could get them to work things out before she had to reveal to them that she had set them up.

Carly watched the clock impatiently at 2:28 pm, waiting for her opportunity to break away at 2:29, one minute before the bell was supposed to ring. By doing this, she could avoid the crowd of students who might had trampled her otherwise. At 2:29, she ducked out of the classroom, her teacher not even noticing the flash of dark brown hair that left a soft, fruity breeze behind. Carly ran to hide in the janitor's closet, which had an open glass window that she could peer out of to spy on Sam and Freddie, and she left the door open a crack so she could hear them. They trudged out of their separate classes, meeting each other's eyes and sighing as they approached each other. It was loud, naturally, but she strained her ears to hear what they had to say.

Freddie seemed to realize this was a good time to talk, although he had wanted Carly to be with him as a witness in case Sam suddenly lashed out at him. He looked at Sam, who didn't look so much embarrassed to be talking to him as annoyed.

"What?" she spat. Her forehead wrinkled and she crossed her arms.

"We have to walk to Carly's together," he shrugged. Sam stepped closer to him, staring down at him. She actually stood on the balls of her feet to give her some extra lift, and by doing so she was able to make herself quite a few inches taller than Freddie.

"You don't think I _know_ what Carly's doing? She doesn't have a doctor's appointment. She's trying to get us to walk home together," she said angrily. "And I don't really feel like walking home with a nerd!"

"Aw, man!" Carly whispered to herself. "I was so sure this plan would work."

"Sam, look, I don't like walking home with you either, seeing as you constantly injure me on a day to day basis and Carly has to be my only defense against you."

"That's because you're weak." She punched his shoulder and knocked him to the floor easily. "My grandma has more muscles than you."

"She's a freak bodybuilder!"

"So? She's still 64! You could be a bodybuilder too if you worked out, but I don't think there's any help for you if you can't pick up a five pound weight without crying."

"Well, sorry for not being strong enough to punch you back!"

"Yeah, if you ever touch me, I'll stuff your mouth with dead mice and dunk your head in a portapotty," Sam said, finally starting to walk to her locker. Carly opened the door a crack more so she could see.

"Aw Sam...that's just nasty!" Freddie cried. He was scared she might actually do that too.

"Who ever said I had a clean mind?" she asked. She turned to her locker and smirked, not wanting Freddie to see her happy again. Somehow, he could tell she was smiling, and suddenly he smiled too.

"There, I made you happy! There's no way you can be mad at me anymore," he said.

Finally, she burst out laughing. She wasn't sure why, but she was just happy again, and while she laughed she threw her hands on Freddie's shoulders. Freddie winced, then looked up at her laughing. She really did look beautiful when she was happy. After her laughter died down, she embraced him in an unexpected hug.

"Thanks Freddie," she simply said.

"Uh, yeah, no problem...I mean, so we're cool?"

"Mmm...yeah, we're cool."

They started walking home, and Carly snuck out of the closet, keeping her distance behind them so she could watch them without being found out. She found that they didn't say another word until they got halfway to the apartments where Carly and Freddie lived, but when one of them was looking straight ahead, the other one was looking at their face and smiling contently. They looked perfectly happy.

It was confusing to Carly how even though they hated each other so much, they liked hanging out together. She thought she might know why: probably because they had both been brought together because of Carly, since Freddie lived across from her and Sam had been her friend since who knows when. It was definitely a love/hate relationship, that she knew.

_But they're so dumb,_ Carly thought, _they wouldn't even figure out that they're perfect for each other because they're so different._

They were almost home. Freddie and Sam seemed to be walking even closer together now. Freddie said something and Sam pushed him, so he fell over on the sidewalk with a little shriek. She laughed as he got up and pushed him again, and of course he fell again.

"Freddie, you're pathetic," she said.

Carly had a memory of when Freddie, Sam and her went to the Experience Music Project near there. They had a thing where you could create your own band and perform to one of three or four songs. The music plays for you so you can't actually hear your instruments or voice, but your mouth moves so it's like you're singing and playing along. They decided to do Wild Thing, and their hair was flying everywhere as they belted out, off-key, the lyrics that popped up on the massive screen in the sound-proof room. She remembered that Sam was on the guitar, and she was just absolutely insane, and Freddie kept glancing over at her. When it was over and she went up to him, he said, "Good job."

"You sucked on the keyboard," she said back. "You ruined the whole thing. You sounded like a baby slamming his hands on the keys."

"How could you even hear me?" he asked.

"I have ways," she said mischievously, and walked away. He then tripped her, and she tackled him to the ground.

So there were moments where Freddie and Sam would go all out to tear each other down, but there were also moments, although very rare moments, where they would seem like they liked each other. Like now. Although she _still _wasn't sure.

Freddie and Sam were waiting outside Carly's door by the time she got up the elevator. As soon as the elevator made the little ding, they whirled around to face her. She expected daggers to be pointed at her, but instead they were smiling.

"Carly, normally I would be mad for you ditching us," Freddie said, "but for some reason I was able to tolerate it."

"Yeah, same." Sam looked at Freddie, then at Carly, feeling a little like a soap opera.

There was some silence, and then Carly broke it by saying, "Who wants to get smoothies?"

"I do," Sam said.

"I don't," Freddie frowned.

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're allergic to fruit," Sam laughed, Carly smiling too.

"I AM NOT ALLERGIC TO FRUIT!" Freddie yelled, but everyone could tell he was laughing too.


End file.
